Chernobyl Exclusion Zone | Reactor No.5
Reactor No. 5, located within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, stands as a colossal monument to an interrupted future. Construction of this Soviet nuclear reactor began in the early 1980s and was nearing completion when the catastrophic explosion of Reactor No. 4 occurred in April 1986. In the aftermath of the disaster, all work on Reactor No. 5 was abruptly halted. The photographs in this series capture the stark, unfinished beauty of the structure—a vast concrete shell frozen in time. Exposed stairwells, skeletal cranes, and open frameworks remain untouched for decades, slowly merging with the silence of the surrounding landscape. Unlike the damaged and sealed Reactor No. 4, Reactor No. 5 represents something else entirely: ambition without completion, momentum halted by tragedy. Through this lens, the series becomes not just a documentation of place, but a reflection on halted progress, the fragility of vision, and the architectural ghosts of unrealised power.